The Asylum (37 page)
Authors: Johan Theorin
The police are not ruling out a connection between this tragic event and the double murder of two teenage boys near a mountain lake just a few kilometres away
.
‘
Evidently these three boys were on an overnight camping trip together when someone attacked them with a knife,’ says Inspector Hans Torstensson
.
He was not prepared to comment or speculate on the suggestion that the same person might have murdered the two boys, then deliberately driven into the third boy as he tried to flee from the scene of the crime along the main road
.
‘
The investigation will continue until all the outstanding issues are resolved
.’
Did anyone else remember those events after fifteen years, Jan wonders? The families of the boys would remember, of course, but they have probably moved on by now. Parents and siblings have gritted their teeth and gradually come to terms with their grief – unless they are like Lilian, of course. The police will definitely have put the investigation on the back burner, in spite of the inspector’s
assurances.
They will have put the final details of the unsolved crimes in some file and archived the whole thing.
Perhaps it is only Jan who still wonders what happened.
Two murdered, one severely injured.
But by whom?
The questions about the identity of the perpetrator have been in Jan’s mind all these years, long after the sense of relief faded away.
Jan has not written in the diary for about a week now, so he turns to a clean page and begins to write a situation report to himself. He writes about the Dell, about the staff and about his secret excursions to the hospital. Finally he writes:
I came to Valla to make contact with Rami again – but that wasn’t the only reason. I wanted to work with vulnerable children, and to make them feel better about themselves
.
I also came here to try to create a life for myself, and to make friends. But that hasn’t happened. Perhaps it’s Rami’s fault. Perhaps I have used her as a kind of shield, protecting me from the rest of the world …
He could never confess these thoughts to Rami face to face. But he wants to talk to her, as soon as possible.
He looks at the clock. It is quarter past nine. Not too late for a little outing on his bike.
Lilian has her preparations to make before the fire drill, and so does Jan.
50
BLACK CLOUDS HAVE
gathered in the night sky, hovering above the hospital and releasing a fine drizzle over the forest. Jan wipes the ice-cold drops of water from his forehead, crouches down in the undergrowth and tries to find some shelter under a birch tree.
He takes out the Angel. The hospital looms up in front of him; Jan has a friend in there, so the rain and cold don’t matter at all.
‘Are you there, squirrel?’ he whispers into the microphone, his gaze fixed on the forbidding façade. Fourth floor, seventh from the right.
The light goes off, then comes back on again.
A clear signal – Rami is back in her room.
Jan slowly exhales, and asks, ‘Do you still want to get out?’
The light flashes off and on.
Yes
.
‘As soon as possible?’
Yes.
Both responses are instant, with no hesitation. The woman who is answering him is definitely not drugged or confused.
‘I want to see you too, I want to hear what happened after you left the Unit. I waited for an answer from you, but it never came … I just know you fulfilled your part of the pact. You stopped the Gang of Four.’ Jan pauses for a moment, gathers his thoughts, then goes on: ‘But
how
did you do it? You told me you knew people who could take care of them, and I’ve wondered all these years … Who was it?’
The Secret Avenger
, he thinks. But who was the Secret Avenger?
There is no answer, of course. The light stays on.
‘I didn’t feel sorry for Niklas, Peter and Christer. I just couldn’t. And now there’s only one member of the Gang of Four left. His name is Torgny, Torgny Fridman. I told you about him fifteen years ago. He owns an ironmonger’s shop back in Nordbro, where I grew up. And he’s got a wife and a child and a successful life … but I find it difficult to forget what he did.’
The light in the window doesn’t go off, but he believes that Rami is listening.
‘There’s something else I need to tell you … I qualified as a classroom assistant ten years ago. And in one of my first temporary posts I was looking after a little boy called William … When I saw William’s mother, I recognized her. She was the Psychobabbler from the Unit, your psychologist. You remember her, don’t you? You asked me to do something to her. To punish her.’
Silence. Jan has reached the heart of his confession. He had meant to sound triumphant, but his voice lacks strength, as if he were apologizing. ‘So … so one day when we were in the forest, I lured William away from the rest of the group and locked him up in an old bunker. He was fine in there, as far as possible, anyway. It was much worse for his parents … for the Psychobabbler. She was worried for a long time.’
The confession is over, but Jan has one thing left to say: ‘Your escape route, Rami. Listen carefully.’ He keeps his eyes fixed on the window, and goes on: ‘During the fire drill next Friday evening, all the patients will be let out of their rooms. I presume you already know about it?’
The light flashes.
‘You need to move away from the others. There’s a storeroom on your floor, not far from your room. The door won’t be locked – I’ve jammed the catch with a bit of paper. And inside the storeroom, behind a cupboard, there’s an old laundry lift. It goes straight down to the basement.’
The light flashes. Rami understands.
‘I’ll be waiting for you down there,’ Jan says. ‘Then we can make our way out together.’
Can he really make that promise? He doesn’t want to think about the things that could go wrong; he is just waiting for an answer.
And it comes: the light flashes one last time.
‘Good … See you soon, Rami.’
Jan switches off the Angel. He is glad to leave the forest; it is a lonely place. But soon he won’t be lonely any more.
Twenty minutes later he is ringing Lilian’s doorbell. This time there is no sign of her brother. Lilian lets him in, but only as far as the hallway. She is on edge, and not in the mood for small talk.
‘Have you made up your mind?’
Jan nods, with the memory of Rami’s light flashing off and on still in his mind. ‘I’ll do it.’
‘You’re with us?’
He nods again. ‘I can stand guard inside the pre-school,’ he says. ‘When you go up to meet Rössel in the visitors’ room, I’ll wait there.’
‘We need a driver too,’ Lilian says. ‘You’ve got a car, haven’t you?’
‘I have.’
‘In that case we’d really like to use it to get everyone there at the same time, and to get back home afterwards,’ Lilian says.
She is focused now, and sober. Jan hears footsteps upstairs; someone is moving around up there.
‘And you’re going to talk to Rössel about your brother?’ he says. ‘That’s all?’
‘That’s all.’
Lilian looks him in the eye. Jan suddenly remembers what Dr Högsmed said about how difficult it is to cure psychopaths.
‘Why do you think Rössel has agreed to meet you? Does he want to confess in order to make himself feel better? Because he’s become a good person?’
Lilian lowers her head. ‘I don’t care what Rössel has become. Just as long as he tells the truth.’
At the feelgood meeting Marie-Louise reminds everyone about Friday’s fire drill. ‘It’s going to be quite a big thing, with the police and rescue services involved,’ she says. ‘But it’s in the evening, so it won’t affect us. The pre-school will remain closed, as usual.’
Not completely closed
, Jan thinks.
He catches a quick glance from Lilian across the table. She looks tired and tense this Monday morning, and she smells of strong mints.
The working week begins, crawling by one day at a time, and suddenly it is Friday.
The last child Jan collects from the visitors’ room is Leo.
From the lift, Jan catches a glimpse of the father: a short, burly man in a grey hospital sweatshirt who glances over at the lift before he goes back through the door leading to the hospital. The last thing he does is to raise his arm to his son, and Leo waves back.
The boy is calm and quiet on the way back to the Dell.
‘Do you like going to see your daddy?’ Jan asks as they step out of the lift.
Leo nods. Jan places a hand on his shoulder and hopes that St Patricia will watch over him when he grows up. The saint, not the hospital.
Marie-Louise smiles at Jan as he hands Leo over to his foster parents.
‘You do a really good job with the children, Jan,’ she says. ‘You never get nervous, like the girls.’
‘Which girls?’
‘Hanna and Lilian … they’re always on edge when they have to go up to the hospital, but I suppose it’s hardly surprising.’ She smiles at him again. ‘None of us is used to that sort of person.’
‘That sort of person … You mean the patients?’
‘Exactly. The ones who are locked up in there.’
Jan looks at her smile, but can’t bring himself to smile back. ‘I’m used to them,’ he says. ‘I know them.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I was locked up too, when I was a teenager.’
The smile disappears. Marie-Louise raises her eyebrows, and Jan goes on: ‘I was in the child psych unit. We used to call it the Unit, short for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Unit. But it was a secure institution, just like St Patricia’s. Those who were dangerous and those who were afraid were all locked up together inside the Unit.’
Marie-Louise manages to close her mouth; she seems to be having difficulty working out what to say. ‘But why?’ she asks eventually. ‘Why were you in there?’
‘I was one of those who was afraid,’ Jan says. ‘I was afraid of the world outside.’
There is an awkward silence in the kitchen.
‘I didn’t know,’ Marie-Louise says at last. ‘You never mentioned it, Jan.’
‘It just never came up … but I’m not ashamed of it.’
Marie-Louise nods understandingly, but he feels she is looking at him with new eyes. He catches her glancing at him several times with a wary expression. It seems as if Jan has destroyed her confidence in him – he has let her down by revealing the cracks in his soul.
But it doesn’t matter any more. Cracks let in the light.
The last thing he does at the end of the working day is to take Rami’s picture books and his own diary out of his rucksack and put them away safely in his locker. There isn’t much room in there among his jacket, umbrella and books, but he manages to squash them in.
When Rami comes out of St Psycho’s tonight he will open the locker and show her all the picture books. And the new ink drawings.
Because Jan
is
going to help her escape from the clinic. This time it’s going to work.
The Unit
Jan knew there was only one way out of the Unit that wasn’t locked: the window above the cooker in the kitchen. The staff wanted to be able to air the room to get rid of the smell of cooking. The kitchen was at the back of the building and had no internal door, but there was almost always someone there during the day, so if you wanted to escape, you would have to be up early.
Jan woke at six. He had set his alarm, and when it started to buzz and he opened his eyes, he felt a long, slender body beside him.
Rami was lying there, her eyes wide open.
Jan quickly pushed his hand down to feel the sheet underneath him, but it was dry.
Rami kissed his forehead. ‘Stockholm,’ she said.
Jan just wanted to lie there, to forget about running away. But he nodded, and they got up.
They didn’t switch on the light; they got dressed and crept out into the corridor like two grey shadows. Jan was carrying a little bag containing a few clothes and his diary, with his bedspread tucked underneath his arm; Rami was behind him with her own bag and something large and black. The guitar case, Jan realized.
‘Are you taking
that
with you?’ he whispered.
She nodded. ‘I told you … We’re going to sing and play on the streets of Stockholm to make some money.’
Jan couldn’t sing, but he didn’t say anything. All the doors were closed, including the door to the staffroom at the end of the corridor. Jan looked at it for a long time as they crept past. The kitchen was empty and in darkness.
Rami put down the guitar case and slid back the bolts securing the window. She pushed it wide open, and the icy morning air swept in.
She took a deep breath. ‘Stockholm,’ she said again, as if it were a magical place.
She quickly climbed up on to the hob and jumped out of the window. Outside there was a paved patio area with a wooden table and chairs.
Jan watched as Rami picked up one of the chairs and carried it across the grass to the fence. Halfway there she looked back over her shoulder and he nodded to her – but remained standing by the window.
Shit
, he thought.
Then he spun around without even thinking and raced back into the corridor. He ran to the right, towards the bedrooms, but stopped outside the closed door of the staffroom. He raised his fist and banged on the door, three times.
He didn’t know if anyone was in there, and he didn’t wait to find out. He went straight back to the kitchen.
Rami was waiting for him outside the window. ‘Where have you been?’
‘I went to the toilet,’ he lied.
Then he climbed up on to the windowsill and jumped out.
‘The table,’ he said.
Jan and Rami had gone over their escape plan in advance; they each grabbed one end of the table on the patio and carried it across to the fence. Then Rami put the chair on top of the table, and Jan climbed up and hurled the brown bedspread at the top of the fence. Twice he missed, but the third time the thick fabric covered the barbed wire and stayed there.
It was bitterly cold by the fence, but Jan was sweating. He quickly glanced back at the Unit and saw that all the windows
were
in darkness except one: the light had just been switched on in the staffroom.
He could make out two figures in the room: a young female auxiliary whose name he didn’t know, and Jörgen, who was pulling on his shirt. They must have slept together, just like Jan and Rami.
Jan looked at her again. ‘You first.’
She was lighter than him, and leapt up at the fence from the chair. Rami was a squirrel now, and got a good grip on the wire through the bedspread. She got one leg over the barbed wire, swung the rest of her body over the top and landed on the other side.
They looked at each other through the fence. Jan picked up the guitar and managed to throw it over to her.
She nodded. ‘Your turn.’
Jan jumped up. He was no squirrel, but he managed to hang on through sheer willpower. The barbs had begun to poke through the bedspread, scratching the palms of his hands, but he managed to clamber right up to the top.
At that moment he heard the sound of banging on the window behind him – they had been seen.
A door opened, someone shouted at them.
Jan swallowed nervously but didn’t look around; he swung himself over and dropped to the ground.
They were on the other side of the fence. They gathered up their things and set off along the path, side by side. It was ten to seven; there wasn’t anyone around, but the sun was just beginning to rise.
From this point their plan was less sure – they had just wanted to get away. Jan had hardly any spare clothes, and only fifty kronor in his pocket.
‘We’re free!’ Rami said, then she yelled, ‘Stockholm!’ at the top of her voice.
This was the first time Jan had seen Rami excited, almost happy. Her cheeks were rosy; he smiled at her, and suddenly knew what it meant to enjoy being with one special person.
He was fourteen years old, and head over heels in love.
The staff from the Unit caught up with them only ten minutes later. The paths in the surrounding area were deserted; the search party had no problem spotting Jan and Rami.
The sound of an engine broke the silence of the morning.
A small white car appeared from the back of the Unit, swung around and picked up speed.
Rami stopped smiling. ‘It’s
them
!’
The cumbersome guitar case was slowing her down, so Jan took it off her and they broke into a run. The path curved to the left and followed a small stream; tarmac and water meandered along side by side for another hundred metres, then there was a narrow wooden bridge.
‘This way!’ Rami shouted.
On the other side there was a grove of trees, and beyond the trees they could just see the town centre.
Jan didn’t need to say a word – he and Rami ran towards the bridge, then across it.
She was faster, and was halfway to the trees by the time the car pulled up on the other side of the water. Jan was slower; he had too much to carry. He turned his head and saw Jörgen leap out of the driver’s seat. The girl was getting out of the passenger seat; she looked more hesitant.
The Secret Avenger would have blown up the bridge, but Jan didn’t have any dynamite.
Jörgen was already halfway across, and his strides were twice as long as Jan’s.
It was all over, they weren’t going to make it. Jan had known it all along, really.
‘Rami!’
She didn’t stop, but she did slow down and look at him. A slim figure in the morning light, the love of his life.
Jan’s lungs were hurting. He had hardly any strength left, but managed another ten or twelve loping steps towards her.
‘Here!’ he panted, handing over the guitar case. He shoved his hand in his pocket and pulled out the fifty-kronor note. ‘Take this … Now run!’
There was no time, but Rami leaned forward, pressed her cheek against his and whispered, ‘Don’t forget the pact.’
Then she flew across the grass with a fresh burst of energy and disappeared among the trees. The guitar case seemed weightless in her hand.
Jan took a few steps after her, but he had lost the impetus, and a couple of seconds later two hands seized him by the shoulders.
‘OK, that’s it.’
Jörgen was also out of breath after the chase, but his grip was firm, and Jan made no attempt to resist. They walked back across the bridge, back towards the Unit.
‘Are you going to lock me up in the Black Hole?’
‘The Black Hole?’
‘That place down in the cellar … where you lock people up.’
‘No, I shouldn’t think so,’ said Jörgen. ‘It’s only those who bite and scratch who end up down there. And you’re not going to start fighting us, are you, Jan?’
Jan shook his head.
‘Was it you who banged on the door just now?’
Jan nodded.
‘Why did you do that?’
‘Don’t know.’
Jörgen looked at him. ‘Why? Did you want to get caught, Jan?’
He didn’t reply.
They walked towards the car, but Jan kept looking over his shoulder. Jörgen’s colleague had disappeared among the trees.
Once he had settled Jan in the back seat of the car, Jörgen went back across the bridge, shouting to her.
It was quiet in the car; Jan could hear the sound of his own breathing.
Did you want to get caught?
he wondered.
Did you want Rami to get caught?
After a minute or so he saw the auxiliary emerge from the trees, shaking her head at Jörgen. They stood talking by the bridge for a little while; Jan saw Jörgen take out his phone and call someone. Then they returned to the car.
‘OK, let’s go,’ said Jörgen.
They drove back to the Unit. Back to safety inside the fence.
Jan was locked up, and he was happy.
He knew that Rami was equally happy to be free.